Sunday, February 14, 2010

This Week In Bookplates 2/14/2010

An Abraham Lincoln themed bookplate Collection is on display through the end of February
at the Greenwich Library in Connecticut. . Fellow collector Bob Weinberg has loaned a number of his Lincoln bookplates to the Library which is located at 10 west Putnam Ave.( 203 622 7948)

Speaking of presidents , last week a George Washington bookplate sold at Heritage Auctions for $1,792.50. Normally that plate should have sold for $2,500.00 +. The plate was trimmed very closely so that several of the plate marks were eliminated . That might have contributed to the lower price. In hindsight , I should have bid on it.
Fellow collector James Goode recently sent me an article entitled The Library At Mount Vernon by Francis Laverne Carroll and Mary Meacham. It was originally published in Beta Phi Mu Chapbook number 12 (1977). From the article I learned that George Washington's bookplate was ordered through Robert Adams on November 22, 1771 and engraved in London by S. Valliscure.Three hundred impressions were made.

Last night, I was the high bidder( on Ebay) for a plate from the library of Ulysses S. Grant.Throughout his early life I am not aware of any bookplates used by U.S. Grant.. After the civil war the city of Boston donated a number of books to the general for his personal library. A special gift bookplate was pasted in each volume..This is only the second copy I have had in thirty years.and I am quite pleased with the purchase.

This falls under the strange coincidence category.Peter V. Brett is a writer of fantasy books who is offering his soon to be printed bookplate to fans . peat@petervbrett.com

Most author's presentation bookplates are of no interest to me but this one is well designed so I wrote to him and this was his response:
"Dear Lewis,
Are you by any chance the same Lew Jaffe I used to buy lists from when I was in medical publishing?"
That took me by surprise and the answer is yes. Now that we are bonded , so to speak I guess I will buy one of his books.